December 23, 2009
Ah the holidays.... a time of celebration and renewal, of family gatherings, gift-giving and for some, also a time of intensified sadness. Remembering past times when a lost loved one was with us becomes more acute at the holidays. In my small circle of friends, there are people feeling the loss of a spouse, of a mother, people who are remembering the difficult death of a young son to cancer, others who are struggling with losses from divorce and those who are estranged from a family member because of drug addiction or mental illness. Feeling more alone with these memories and circumstances is not unusual during the holidays when others may seem happier. For those 60 & Single whose hearts are heavy I've collected a selection of quotes from people who have found the inner resources to move forward with their lives, who can love those around them and who find beauty in the moment.
"There are obstinate and unknown braves who defend themselves inch by inch in the shadows against the fatal invasion of want and turpitude. There are noble and mysterious triumphs which no eye sees. No renown rewards, and no flourish of trumpets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, and poverty and battlefields which have their heroes." - Victor Hugo
"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey." - Kenji Miyazawa
"In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing." - Robert Ingersoll
"Peace comes from feelings of satisfaction when working with joy, living with hope, loving with abandonment" - Arnold Hutschnecker
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." - Thomas Edison
"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget about everything except what you're going to do now - and do it." - William Durant
"You don't have to control your thoughts; you just have to stop letting them control you." - Dan Millman
"Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time." - Og Mandino
"Fall seven times, stand up eight." - Japanese proverb
"We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope." - Martin Luther King "
"Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings." - Elie Weisel
"Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born." - Helen Keller
"When he shall die Take him and cut him out in little stars And he will make the face of heav'n so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun." - William Shakespeare
"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight." - Kahlil Gibran
"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." - Thomas Campbell
"A human life is a story told by God." - Hans Christian Andersen
"He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
" Life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon; And a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." - Rossiter Worthington Raymond
"Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains. - Kahlil Gibran
"Good-night! good-night! as we so oft have said Beneath this roof at midnight, in the days That are no more, and shall no more return. Thou hast but taken up thy lamp and gone to bed; I stay a little longer, as one stays To cover up the embers that still burn." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
